Twelve-year-old Nigerian-American girl, Eniola Shokunbi, made headlines recently for her invention of an innovative air filter aimed at improving air quality in United States classrooms and curbing the spread of airborne diseases. She undertook the invention as part of a school project focused on enhancing safety during potential future pandemics. Her idea was birthed by the need for effective and affordable air purification system in U.S. classrooms.

Little Eniola, from Connecticut, designed the low-cost air filtration system in response to a search for easily accessible means of combating airborne viruses such as COVID-19. While a fifth grader at Commodore MacDonough STEM Academy in Middletown, she and her classmates were given the assignment to devise a solution to enhance safety in schools during potential future pandemics. Her response is the low-cost air filter that has received $11.5million in funding support from the Connecticut State Bond Commission.

The air filter that Eniola invented is remarkably simple and cost-effective, yet proven to be efficient. It is made of a box fan, four furnace filters, duct tape and cardboard. The cleverly assembled device attracts a production cost of just about $60 per unit, making it an accessible alternative to expensive commercial air purifiers. American media described the invention as showcasing innovation and cost-effectiveness. ?The air goes through all the sides, and it comes out of the top, so it filters in and out,? Eniola was reported saying of her invention, adding that many people ?don?t realise the only thing standing between them and getting sick is science.?

The simple device underwent rigorous testing with assistance from scientists at the University of Connecticut (UConn) and was found okay. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also vetted the device and confirmed it effectively eliminates more than 99 percent of airborne viruses, thus indicating its potential to significantly improve classroom safety.

Reports said the approval of $11.5million by the State Bond Commission was to fund the provision of Eniola?s air filter in Connecticut schools, as part of UConn?s SAFE-CT: Supplemental Air Filtration for Education Program that aims to provide every public school classroom with access to essential air purification systems. But the young inventor?s sight is set beyond Connecticut schools: she hopes to see her air filter deployed in classrooms across the U.S.

The 12-year-old was celebrated in her U.S. community because she apparently resets the narrative of American schooling environment where nutty gunmen occasionally break into schools and commit mass murders, thereby making the environment risk-prone. On the contrary, Eniola has come up with an invention that promotes safety and wellbeing in schools and eliminates a health hazard in the environment. Where others were pulling down, she is building up; no wonder that Connecticut State Senator Matt Lesser hailed her as fabulous. ?She wows every room she?s in front of. She?s a real rock star,? the lawmaker was reported saying of her. Beyond the U.S., the young inventor is our own ?rock star.? She is a kid genius that her ancestral land, Nigeria, is proud to be identified with and hold up as a worthy ambassador and role model for young ones aspiring to great exploits. She?s not only made a name, she is also well resourced ? with ?clean money? as they would say local lingo ? and may have hit the honey pot of a lifetime so early.

But her story offers lessons for Nigeria to learn. Eniola is fortunate to have found expression for her genius within a system that recognises and promotes ingenuity. There are gifted young inventors in Nigeria that are neither recognised nor promoted, leaving many to waste away in neglect. Every now and then, reports emerge of such great talents who end up untapped. In April 2022, there was the report of two secondary school pupils in Akwa Ibom State who invented a rail line threat detection system that, according to them, could avert track vandalism. Their invention resonated because it followed a terrorist attack the previous month on an Abuja?Kaduna rail service in which no fewer than eight persons were killed and nearly 200 abducted by the terrorists. It is unlikely the youngsters? invention has been harnessed till date, whatever it is worth.

There?ve been other Nigerian inventors who were ignored by their home country but got eagerly harvested by other countries. Among them was 22-year-old Ignatus Asabor who used local materials in making drones, and who was lapped up into employment by a Finnish company that announced his arrival in Finland in 2021 with relish. There was also Musa Sani, who became an online celebrity after building a replica of the Kano overhead bridge, upon which a construction firm swiftly took him on board and gave him scholarship to study in the United States.

Eniola?s lucky break is another wake-up call that Nigeria must become a country that recognises and promotes ingenuity, not ignore its geniuses. (The Nation Editorial)

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